No. 219.
Mr. Perez to Mr. Bayard.
Washington, D. C., July 31, 1887. (Received August 1.)
Sir: I have received your excellency’s esteemed communication of yesterday, whereby you were pleased to inform me that his Excellency [Page 269] the President had been pleased to accept the office of arbitrator in the controversy between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, concerning the validity or invalidity of the treaty of April 15, 1858, which was concluded by the two Republics for the final arrangement of their territorial limits.
This agreeable notice has afforded me great satisfaction, and I shall communicate it to my Government by cable without delay. In fact, I never apprehended that the illustrious head of this great nation would refuse to render Costa Rica the inestimable service of hearing and deciding its differences with the Republic of Nicaragua, its sister and neighbor.
I perform a very pleasing duty in returning to the President and to your excellency, for the part taken by you in this matter, my warmest thanks for the new evidence of friendship which we have received. This duty I have been specially instructed by my Government to perform. Within the time fixed by the treaty relative to arbitration I shall have the honor to submit to your excellency’s consideration the arguments which, in the opinion of the Government of Costa Rica, furnish irrefragable evidence of the validity of the treaty of 1858, which is now under discussion.
With sentiments of high esteem, etc.,